Biden: ‘I may very well’ request a classified briefing on Russian bounty

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he will likely request a classified briefing on intelligence that Russia offered bounties to incentivize Taliban-connected militants to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. 

“As this proceeds, I may very well do that,” Biden told reporters after an address in Wilmington, Del., adding that the Trump administration had not yet offered to give him a classified briefing on the matter.

The New York Times first reported on Friday that the GRU, Moscow’s military intelligence agency, had offered the bounties to Afghan militants, and The Washington Post reported Sunday that the offer had resulted in U.S. casualties.

Reports have surfaced that Trump was provided with written briefs on the intelligence, but he has said that he was never briefed on the allegations and has questioned their legitimacy. Multiple news outlets, including CNN, have pointed out that Trump is known not to read the briefings regularly.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday denied that Trump was personally briefed on the reported bounties, saying he was not briefed due to a lack of consensus and “dissenting opinions” within the intelligence community about the credibility of the information. 

Biden said it would be a “dereliction of duty” if Trump didn’t read the briefings. 

“The Presidential Daily Brief was something I read every single day as vice president. The president read it every single day,” Biden said, referring to former President Obama. “So the idea that he somehow didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that’s the case.”  

“And if he was briefed, and nothing was done about this, that’s a dereliction of duty,” he added.